NCJ Number
86199
Date Published
1982
Length
10 pages
Annotation
In the radical perspective, victimology shows the victimizing nature of the state and society perpetrated against the lower classes of society in contradiction to a victimology with a narrow focus on victims of crime defined by the ruling class.
Abstract
Under the radical perspective, the whole system of criminal justice victimizes the underprivileged classes of society not only by punishing the criminals but by directing attention away from the victims of the stronger victims (predatory victims who prey on other lower class victims). The rhetoric of victimization as currently used tends to divide the oppressed class into 'bad' (criminals) and 'good' (victims) so that the attention of the lower classes is diverted from the exploitation they experience from the state and the privileged to the 'dangerous victims' of their own class. The state even poses itself as the ultimate victim to intensify perceptions that anyone who violates laws established by the state is dangerous and exploitative. Patterns of the economic, political, and social systems that exploit the poor and powerless are seldom the focus of the state's crime control activities. Traditional victimology also narrows its focus to the study of victims of crimes committed by the lower class, while ignoring the broader victimization inherent in the basic structures of society. Victimology under the radical perspective is much broader and more penetrating in its definition of and identification of victimization. Fourteen notes and 14 references are provided.